


Kindred Encounters

by Dessa



Category: Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Phoenix Nest Discord, Phoenix Nest Summer Exchange
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-01
Updated: 2020-08-01
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:13:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25642609
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dessa/pseuds/Dessa
Summary: It wasn't every day you saw a Mandalorian ship on Tatooine...
Relationships: Ezra Bridger & Luke Skywalker
Comments: 5
Kudos: 64
Collections: Phoenix Nest Summer Exchange 2020





	Kindred Encounters

**Author's Note:**

  * For [blackdragonhellfire](https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackdragonhellfire/gifts).



The X-34 landspeeder slowed, before stopping completely. Luke Skywalker was on his way back to his aunt and uncle’s moisture farm, after doing some supply shopping in Anchorhead. The path through the desert was familiar to him, but there were some things you just didn’t expect to see on a backwater planet like Tatooine.

One of those things was a red and black colored Kom’rk-class fighter.

Kom’rk-class fighters were not common anywhere in the Arkanis sector, let alone Tatooine. Heck, they weren’t common anywhere that wasn’t Mandalore. The only reason Luke could even recognize it was because Laze had shown him pictures of one once, when they were all talking about ships they’d love to fly sometime. Like any of them would ever have the credits… Luke shook his head, bringing him back to the present. The fighter was sitting there, in the Dune Sea, where it had no business belonging. Why was it here, rather than at a spaceport, anyway?

He heard steps, and saw a dark-haired head poke out of the hatch, and start down the ramp. “Keep working on getting it ready, Chop, I won’t be long!” he called back into the ship. The faint warbling of an astromech droid came in reply, so Luke figured it was just the two of them.

“Yo!” he called, waving to Luke. “We didn’t expect to have company out here.”

“I was on my way home and saw the ship. Can’t blame a guy for being curious,” Luke replied. Seeing the other better, he could tell that they were about the same age, although something about the other boy’s eyes told Luke he was much older in experience.

The other chuckled. “Nope, I can’t. I’d be curious, too. Name’s Ezra,” he said, holding a hand out.

Luke hopped out of his speeder, smiling. “Luke,” he replied, grasping the offered hand.

“Where’d you get the ship?” Luke asked.

“I, ah… inherited it from it’s previous owner,” Ezra replied, hand behind his head, and hoping that Luke didn’t notice his pause.

Luke hadn’t, but he  _ did _ notice Ezra’s slight hiss as his hand touched the back of his neck. Luke took a closer look, and realized that Ezra’s skin tone wasn’t meant to be as red as it was.

“Let me get you something for those burns!” he exclaimed, rushing to the med kit under the seat of his speeder.

“Burns?”

“Sunsburn. You’re lucky it seems pretty mild, or you’d be in a lot of pain.” Luke pulled the item he wanted out of the kit, and offered it to Ezra. “Here, spread this on your face and neck. It’s more effective than straight bacta.”

Ezra smiled, taking the proffered item. “Thanks.” He followed Luke’s instructions, and had to admit that his skin did feel a lot better, even if he hadn’t noticed the sunsburn in the first place.

An orange-topped astromech popped its head out, warbling angrily.

Luke chuckled. “It seems like it’s time for you to leave.”

Ezra blinked. “Wait, you can understand him? It took me ages to do that!”

“I work with droids a lot on my uncle’s moisture farm, so it’s not too hard,” Luke laughed. Ezra joined in, until Chopper warbled again.

“Alright, alright, I’m coming!” Ezra walked back to the fighter, then turned back to Luke. “Hey, maybe we’ll see each other again sometime.”

“Next time you’re on Tatooine, look up Lars moisture farm. We’re down on the Great Chott salt flat.”   
  


“Will do!” Ezra gave a sort of wave-like salute, and the ship closed behind him, before taking off.

~~~~~

Biggs was showing Luke around the base on Yavin IV, when the younger boy stopped, a ship in the distance catching his eye.

“She’s a beaut, ain’t she?” Biggs asked, noticing where he was looking and gesturing.

“That’s a Kom’rk class fighter, isn’t it?”

“Good eye, from this distance. You don’t see many out of Mandalore.”

“I saw one, a year or so back.”

“On Tatooine?!” Biggs cried in disbelief.

“Yeah, out in the Wastelands, of all places.” He looked thoughtfully at the ship. Could it be the same one he’d seen before? The paint job looked about right. “Say, Biggs, whose ship is it?”

“I think it belongs to Phoenix Squadron. Well, what’s left of them, at least.”

“Left of them?” Luke asked worriedly.

“Yeah. Big battle at their base on Atollon. Not a whole lot got out. More than would’ve, though, without Commander Sato sacrificing himself.”

“What about that ship’s pilot?”

Biggs looked down. “He’s MIA. Sacrificed himself to save the rest of his squad, and then these giant space whales came out of nowhere, and took the entire Imperial fleet who knows where. General Syndulla’s convinced he’s still alive, but…”

Luke took one last look toward the Gauntlet. “Something tells me that we’ll see him again.”

~~~~~

Luke Skywalker stood among the masses waiting for the T-6 shuttle to land. From what the rumor mill had determined, Ahsoka Tano, former Padawan of his father Anakin, and Sabine Wren, a Mandalorian, had left to find the missing member of General Syndulla’s crew, more than 5 years after his disappearance. From everything Luke had gathered, they had found him, and were bringing back quite possibly the only other surviving Jedi in the galaxy. Luke knew that there were things that would obviously come first, but he was hoping that both Ahsoka and he would be willing to help him bring back the Jedi, eventually. At the very least, he wanted to get pointers from them, as he suspected that his nephew, Leia and Han’s son Ben, was Force Sensitive.

When the shuttle landed, the crowd began to murmur, as the ramp lowered, and a tall, white-robed Togruta walked down. This was Ahsoka, Luke supposed. Even from a distance, he felt short compared to her.

But despite him feeling drawn to her (the Force, he supposed), it was who came out next that everyone’s eyes were on. Dark blue-black hair, and deep blue eyes that seemed to shine. The brightly-colored Mandalorian ushered people out of his way, letting General Syndulla rush to him and embrace him, followed by her half-Twi’lek son nervously waving, before he was engulfed in the arms of a large Lasat.

Luke watched as he was welcomed and greeted by more people than he could recognize, before the group made it to where he was standing.

“Commander Skywalker,” General Syndulla started, “this is--”

“Ezra Bridger,” Luke finished, smiling.

Ezra smiled back at him. “Luke Skywalker,” he greeted. The others just stared, unsure how the two knew each other.

“At least you’re not sunsburnt this time,” Luke teased.

“Hey, if I never have to go back to a desert planet, I’ll be perfectly fine!” Ezra retorted back.

Ezra offered his hand, and Luke grasped it. “Welcome back to civilization,” Luke said.

“Glad to  _ be _ back,” Ezra replied.


End file.
